Robert Smalley
Associate Research Professor
B.S. in Physics, Renssalaer Polytechnic Institute,
1975
M.S. in Physics, Cornell University, 1977
Ph.D. in Seismology, Cornell University, 1988
After receiving his M.S., Smalley worked in industry designing digital
signal processing hardware and software. He returned to Cornell in
Geophysics where he finished a thesis on seismology and the
development of new applications of fractals, the renormalization
group and non-linear dynamics to problems in earth science. Smalley
joined the CERI research staff as a Postdoctoral associate in 1987 and
was appointed to the faculty in 1990.
The research interests of Dr. Smalley include earthquake seismology,
active tectonics, the physics of earthquake faulting, digital signal
processing and educational applications of computers in Geophysics.
The principal tools Dr. Smalley uses in his research are computer
modeling, seismic networks, and global positioning systems (GPS)
networks. He has active field research projects using these tools in
the New Madrid and Southern Appalachian seismic zones and the
central and southern Andes of South America. The goal of the South
American projects is to understand the tectonic processes involved in
the development of the Andes mountains by the Nazca-South
America subduction system and the cycle of large and great
interplate earthquakes that occur on the boundary between the two
plates. In the New Madrid and Southern Appalachian areas his
research addresses questions about earthquake occurrence in stable
continental regions and the stresses, as expressed by regional
deformation, that generate these earthquakes.
smalley@ceri.memphis.edu |
